


Tenderness and Truth

by Beckon



Category: Mortal Kombat (Video Games)
Genre: Bathing/Washing, Blood and Gore, Established Relationship, F/M, Light Angst, Minor Injuries, Paranormal, Possessed, Post-Possession, Recovery, Serious Injuries, Spirits, Tension, Trust Issues, Vault - Freeform, my 100th story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-03
Updated: 2021-02-03
Packaged: 2021-03-15 05:35:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,162
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29184144
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beckon/pseuds/Beckon
Summary: He could snap awake at any minute and there was no telling just who would be in control.It was a stupid risk.But it was one she had to take.No one else would do this for him.
Relationships: Sonya Blade/Takahashi Kenshi
Comments: 2
Kudos: 8





	Tenderness and Truth

**Author's Note:**

> The Possessed variant in MKX was my main Kenshi load out, mostly for the aesthetics, but also because the move list was great. The red glow, the shattered Sento, the demon that could be summoned in the background- still chasing that high. Anyways, I've always been intrigued by the idea that Kenshi could be possessed by the souls inside of Sento, but it's such an expansive idea to tackle. 
> 
> I have a lot of drafts for it sitting around but it's hard trying to narrow down what exactly I want and how I want to portray it. BUT I figured at the very least, I could try to give some idea of it, especially since it's been like 6 years since MKX came out.

Sonya didn't know how long she had been standing in the doorway.

How long she had just been standing there watching him.

She tried to tell herself that she was doing it in observation, that she was watching to see if he had any more ticks left in him.

It was dangerous enough to be down here, to be around him like this.

But it was even more dangerous to be here alone.

It would've been safer to have a team on stand-by while she was here, just in case something happened, just in case of an emergency. But it seemed like wasted effort, like wasted resources. Not to mention, having additional people around would only cause further stress, which was proven to provoke him in this state.

Call it arrogance, or maybe ignorance, but Sonya felt like she could handle him on her own.

She just had to be careful with what her next action would be.

She had to make sure that she didn't make any sudden movements, that she didn't do anything that might start the cycle all over again.

In the guts of it though, Sonya just wanted to see if he would move.

She just wanted to see him react to something, to anything.

But instead, Kenshi just sat there.

Completely motionless.

Days before, the concrete cell looked as though it couldn't contain him.

Hell, it felt as though the entire underground vault couldn't hold him.

And now, the walls looked far too large around him.

It was impossible to tell from this distance, but Sonya wasn't even convinced that he was blinking.

It was a far cry from the past week, from when his blinding rage had forced him into this constant rush of adrenaline, from when it had pushed him to the brink of exhaustion- and then just kept pushing.

Kenshi had gone from levitating and breaking everything in the containment room, desperate for an exit and looking to make one, to pacing back and forth relentlessly in the cell.

The memory of it still played out like ghost images in front of her.

Bringing a chill to her skin at the tense silence he had managed to conjure around him.

What scans they could get on him, abet from a distance, and in the short amount of time they had before he destroyed whatever drone they had sent in, showed disturbing results.

They showed him being in a constant state of distress, in a constant state of pain.

Every reading they could get on him was in the red, or completely unreadable.

His heart rate had been through the roof, beyond the point of anything any human being could achieve- let alone survive.

What brain activity they could scan was invalid.

Not due to lack of activity, but an overabundance of it.

None of her doctors could explain it.

Every reading dictated that he should be dead, or well on his way to be.

And yet, the actions in front of them said otherwise.

Despite what he was going through, despite the obvious agony he was in, Kenshi almost brutalized anyone who so much as thought to step in and provide assistance, or comfort.

And that was if someone tried to step inside of his room.

Being outside of it wasn't any better.

A concrete wall didn't provide any sense of additional safety for anyone on the other side of it.

His telekinetic powers had virtually no limits when he was under possession.

Kenshi had been able to grab things that should've been outside of his range, easily bypassing the barriers that otherwise had no issues preventing other forms of escape. He had managed to knock out two of her guards by lifting and slamming them with a metal table that had been present inside of the observation room with them. He had managed to pin both guards against the wall with it, and held them there until they inevitably passed out.

A feat Sonya only discovered when she watched the security footage.

When she went looking for an answer as to how two of her guards ended up bloodied and bruised in room entirely separate from Kenshi's own.

His telekinetic power seemed unbound when he was in a possessed state, which only made him more dangerous.

He could've easily killed the guards if he wanted to, and yet he opted to release them the moment they were both unconscious.

It seemed to dictate that some part of him was still in control, at least to a small extent.

It might've been why Kenshi never actually escaped, even though it was quite possible for him to do so.

If he could attack two guards on the other side of the wall then there was no reason why he couldn't simply unlock the door from the other side as well.

Physical attacks weren't the only thing he was capable of though.

Just being in the observation room outside of his cell was enough to conjure countless nosebleeds, to ignite hallucinations, and migraines that affected anyone and everyone who stayed for too long.

Sonya could recall the first night she had tried to stay in there with him, trying to keep a personal eye on him.

She had almost passed out from the head pain alone.

The memories were mostly a blur, but she could remember hearing muffled voices screaming inside of her head, sometimes projecting themselves into the room around her, giving off the illusion that the entire vault was filled with a screaming orchestra.

She remembered seeing the movement of people flickering in and out of her peripheral vision, giving off this paranoid sensation that she wasn't alone. She could feel hands grabbing and pulling at her hair, at her clothing, at her arms- and yet there was never anything there.

At least, that's what she had thought.

It had been a haunting experience when she eventually retreated to her office and stripped off her shirt, soaked from a persistent nosebleed, only to reveal the cut lines and bruising that covered her body. There were red impressions of phantom hands that had grabbed onto her, of fingers that had dug into her skin and tugged on her over and over again.

When she watched the security footage of her in that room, there was no one else in there.

But the footage flickered from time to time, and Sonya was certain that if she slowed it down, she would see something else in there with her.

She chose not to.

Given the silence now, the stillness that filled both the observation and containment room, the lack of anything and everything, Sonya found herself preferring the hysteria instead.

At least that would give her answers.

Silence didn't give her anything.

Sighing under her breath, Sonya rubbed her fingers against one temple, before she pushed herself into the small room.

Her boots barely made a sound on the tiles below, but she tried to make some kind of noise to alert him to her presence.

Not that it seemed to matter.

Kenshi didn't so much as react to anything around him.

Her nose wrinkled at the smell that hit her as she got closer to him.

To say that he was slathered in blood was an understatement.

Blood was only one of what seemed like many things that he was coated in, that had been baked into his skin and clothing.

Drawing closer to him, Sonya found herself within a foot of where Kenshi was seated- and still with no response. Not even any sense of acknowledge that he knew that she was there in the first place.

And that was the dangerous part.

Or perhaps, just the unnerving part.

He could snap awake at any minute and there was no telling just who would be in control.

It was a stupid risk.

But it was one she had to take.

No one else would do this for him.

Still, there was some hesitation as Sonya reached out to him, as she brushed her hand against his cheek.

Nothing else seemed to get his attention, but she knew that Kenshi was sensitive to physical touch, especially skin-to-skin contact. And considering that they couldn't do that before, not with him in a pure possessed state, she figured now was as good of time as any to try it, to test it.

And in hopeful surprise, Sonya felt him turn his head into her touch.

Barely, but it was enough movement for her to feel compelled that she was safe enough in his presence.

For the time being anyways.

"Hey," Sonya whispered, as she moved herself into his field of vision- or rather, lack of.

But she knew that Kenshi liked people to be facing him when speaking to him; something that he seemed to know on his own, and had no issues calling someone out on for not looking at him. It was easy for her to do so, considering that she was always in his face about one thing or another.

Slowly, she let her hand move to fully cup his cheek now, feeling the crystallized mess of dried blood on her fingers.

For the first time, Sonya watched as white eyes blinked.

About as well as one of them could anyways, given the open gash that split down his eyebrow and nick his eyelid, causing it swell.

And she watched as blown out, scarred over pupils looked up at her.

So far, so good.

He was acknowledging her at least.

And whether that was a good thing or a bad thing was still up in the air.

"Do you know who I am?" Sonya asked.

Empty eyes seemed to stare through her, before they blinked twice more.

For a second between his eyes blinking, she caught a hint of that soft, subtle glow that usually highlighted his eyes in blue.

It was much different compared to the red glow they had possessed days before.

The blue was gone after the second blink though.

"How could I forget?" Kenshi replied.

His voice was smooth now.

It no longer echoed or sounded like static.

Or like a hundred voices overlapping and screaming at once.

But it was empty.

And that couldn't be ignored.

His voice always seemed to betray his age; it gave him this smooth, youthful sound, even if he didn't physically quite look like it.

But now his voice just sounded tired, exhausted; and for once, it fit the face that it came from.

"That's a start," Sonya offered, as she cautiously moved her hand to brush a few straying hairs from his face- only to find that they were too stiff with dried blood and were plastered to his skin. "How strong do you feel? You think you can walk? Maybe stand for awhile?"

"... Why?"

A quiet response; it wasn't even accusatory or aggressive.

And given the experience she had been dealing with for the past few days, it was a nice change.

"Because it smells like you're starting to rot and I almost puked when I walked in here," she replied.

For a second, it looked like she caught the hint of movement on his lips.

Like Kenshi was going to laugh at her crack.

But nothing came from it.

"Let's get you washed down, alright? And give me a better look at some of those injuries."

There was a delay in his response.

But she watched as Kenshi slowly got to his feet and stood in front of her, standing over her now.

"Okay."

A quiet word of agreement.

Sonya let her hand drop to his chest when he moved and she lightly patted it before she stepped away.

She would've preferred to lead him by the hand, to give his senses a break, but she thought better of it.

It was best not to push the physical things just yet; she needed to warm him up to them first and let him set the pace, lest she make a mistake on both of their ends.

The containment and observation rooms were only a small portion of the vault that laid underneath the main base.

This place was built some time during the second World War, or at least that's what the papers were all dated with when she went looking for them.

Yet another effect of war paranoia, of the threat of nuclear fallout.

Sonya wasn't surprised that the Special Forces invested in a few of these underground vaults. It wasn't a secret that most governing buildings had one or two underneath their foundations; she knew that the White House had one large enough to withhold every member of Congress- and she knew how strict the entry list was, depending on re-elections.

She wasn't surprised that the main Special Forces HQ would have a massive vault underneath it.

But she was surprised by the state that it had been left in.

Once the fear of nuclear war passed on, as did maintenance and upkeep.

Given the war against Outworld, the war against the Netherrealm, and inner-fighting in Earthrealm, it only seemed reasonable for her to get the underground hud up and working again. She didn't think its usage would be necessary, but she wasn't opposed to using it as a back up either.

Plus, it gave her a place to go to when she needed solitude and thinking space.

They would do routine checks once a year and have different units stay inside of the vault for two weeks at a time- or longer, if they could manage the absence.

She knew it was safe; she knew that it worked.

And that was why she had Kenshi brought here.

It would keep him, and the base, safe.

And it would keep this ordeal relatively out of anyone's circle of knowledge, at least until he was back under control.

They had gone through this rodeo before, they could do it again.

Sonya made sure that her footsteps were easy for him to track as she lead him out through the observation room and into the conjoining corridor. There was almost a hollow echo as she turned left and headed towards the showers, listening to the sound of her boots against the metal plating underneath her- and then listening as his boots followed after.

This vault could hold up to three hundred people.

Which must've been the head count for the year it had been build, considering she had almost three thousand people on base now.

It felt crowded enough with just sixty people in close quarters.

And yet, it was eerily haunting with just the two of them now.

Like being trapped in a landlocked submarine.

The metal tunnel gave way to the showers on her left.

Sonya stepped in through the locker room first and made her way to the shower cells on the other side of it. Much like the showers on base, the vault was built with a communal shower; in the case though, it was multiple shower cells sharing one room, rather than just a large, open room with multiple shower heads. So there was some privacy to be had down here.

It must've been easier on the plumbing this way as well.

That, and building the showers as such helped to square off part of the vault for bathing or disinfecting. Perhaps in the event that something should happen that might make it necessary to cut off access to this room.

Some of the rooms did have personal showers, but they were few and far between- and more than likely saved for higher-rank officials.

The lights flickered on above, detecting her movement and casting the open room in a pale-yellow glow.

She didn't like the florescent white the place had originally been lit with.

It was painful on the eyes and washed things out.

It would drive a person crazy in four days or less.

Which would debunk the whole purpose of this vault.

Sonya checked to make sure that Kenshi was still behind her, and noted that he had slowed down a few paces, but that he was still following her. He seemed caught up in being outside of his previous containment, in not being confined to just four walls. He finally had the escape, the freedom he had so desperately fought for- and yet, he was beyond wanting it anymore.

Stepping into one of the shower cells, Sonya turned the knobs and listened to the slight kick of the pipes before the water came running out of the shower head.

Given the shit he had gone through, and the totaling exhaustion, it would've been more humane to run him a bath to soak in.

But she needed to strip off a few layers of caked on blood first and scrub down whatever was underneath them.

Maybe when he was better, she could let him properly soak and hopefully relax.

Sonya ran her hand under the water and felt it go from a lukewarm to hot in a matter of seconds.

Those extra water heaters she had installed were no joke.

The water pressure was a little intense but she would need it to get all the coating off of him.

Hopefully the white noise of the running water would keep him calm and take his focus off of the pressure.

Stepping back, she looked back to him once more and noted that Kenshi had finally caught up to her; he either remembered where she was when she had stopped moving, or simply followed the sound of running water- which, given how it echoed in the eerily empty room, couldn't have been easy to pinpoint. Especially in a state like his, whatever state he was in.

Sonya watched as he ran his fingers over the knuckles of his right hand.

Feeling where the skin and tissue had been ripped down to the bone, exposing tendons.

While most of the blood he had been slathered in was from the Red Dragons, she couldn't keep denying that a lot of the blood was his own as well.

He didn't get into this state by himself.

Slowly moving back to him, drawing attention to herself again, she reached out and brushed her hand against his arm, and watched as he paused what he was doing.

"Come on, let me help with this," Sonya whispered, as she tugged at the torn cuff of his shirt.

She gave him the hint but didn't go further until Kenshi made the first step in doing so.

She waited for him to reach back and grab the neck of his shirt before he pulled it over his shoulders and head, before she reached up to help pull it the rest of the way. She could feel how frayed and stiff the material was in her hands, once soaked and now dried with blood- and other humanly bits on it.

She tossed it into the nearby storage hamper, and reminded herself to toss it into the incinerator later.

Sonya tried not to let her eyes focus on the hard bruising on his ribs or the bruising across his abdomen, but the dark-purple and black patches were too easy to see on his pale skin. It almost looked as though the deep bruising had sucked the blood out of the skin around it, making itself look more prominent, more serious.

She tried to ignore the open, dried over wounds on his arms, shoulders, and chest.

Skin that had been split under force, under knife, and left gaping, only to then be sealed by the mess of dried blood and bits of fabric from his shirt.

Despite how difficult, and dangerous, it was to engage him immediately after possession, they had managed to capture him fairly early after Sento had shattered. Maybe a few days past, which was better than their previous record. It just meant that Kenshi was still caught up in the storm of souls that passed through his mind, each one still grappling him, and one another, for control. It meant they had to be more careful, but also more firm in their collection method.

Extreme force had, unfortunately, been necessary in this case.

Although the injuries he had sustained from the task force were minimal compared to the ones he had sustained from the Red Dragons.

An early capture meant that they could run an early medical scan on him, to ensure that he didn't have any internal bleeding, or a deeper, under the surface injury.

Their delay in his first capture had almost gotten him killed by sepsis.

And while Sonya could've easily passed it off as them not knowing that he was capable of being possessed, and being shocked by the outcome of it, she knew she never would've forgiven herself for it.

This time though, Kenshi somehow miraculously avoided anything potentially life-threatening; although in the act of trying to restrain him in order to scan him, he had nearly killed two of her medical staffers in response.

His survival had less to do with him, however, and more to do with the Red Dragons.

They didn't want him to die too quickly.

And perhaps, thanks to that sadistic mindset, she had managed to organize his capture and get him here without losing him along the way. And thankfully, without losing anyone else on her team, although there had been far too many close calls- enough so, that Sonya knew to expect a debriefing with the other Generals on it. And she knew they were going to try and corner her on this.

They were well within reason to, but-

Kenshi was too great of an asset to the Special Forces for them to drop him over this.

She had managed to defend him twice now, she could do it a third time.

"I'm fine," Kenshi spoke, as though reading her mind.

And knowing him, he probably was, despite her annoyance with it.

But the smooth whisper of his voice in the sterile silence around them eased her mind on the possibility.

"I know you are," Sonya replied, knowing well that they were both lying now, "but you're my responsibility. You can't take care of yourself in this condition, and I've been through this plenty of times before, with plenty of other people- myself included."

When Kenshi was in a post-possession state like this, he was still just as dangerous as he was when he was being fully possessed, but more so because he was completely unpredictable in this state.

When he was possessed, you knew he was going to try and kill you.

But when he was like this, there was no rhyme or reason to what he might do.

But at least in this mindset, he could be spoken to and he could understand what was being said, for the most part anyways. It didn't erase the fact that he was still dangerous, however. He would go through various stages of instability, of influence- mostly anger from whatever ancestor was raging the most inside of Sento. And despite the instinct to remove Sento from him, that was actually the last thing they wanted to do.

Sonya felt Kenshi take her by the hands, slow and careful, either for his sake or her own, before he moved them to his face and held them against him.

Something he only did when he needed it.

When he felt like he needed an anchor to hold on to.

"You have more important things to do," he spoke.

"You're the only thing important to me right now," Sonya reminded, as she gently raked her fingers through his beard, hoping that the familiar gesture would keep him anchored in this more coherent state. Only to feel the thick clumps of dried blood half-breaking underneath her fingers. "Now let's get you out of these clothes so I can scrub you down."

He seemed reluctant, but opted to follow her order regardless.

And Sonya opted to step back and let him finish on his own.

Give him a few days and the anger from possession usually subsided into exhaustion, into seclusion.

When he was possessed, he didn't feel pain, he didn't feel exhaustion; he didn't feel anything.

Which usually meant that it all came crashing down on him once he was freed from the mind control, but even then, it could take days before anything physical really kicked in.

As of late, it was taking him longer and longer to recover.

Taking the time to strip herself down, Sonya worked off her boots and belts, and tugged off her jacket and shirt. She tried to ignore the lingering bruises and cuts on her own body; the evidence left behind by phantoms hands.

She had managed to come out of the whole ordeal without any internal bleeding for herself.

She did end up with a bruised kidney, which had mostly healed by now, although she did find herself pissing blood for a few days.

But it was better than being dead, or dealing with a broken neck, or a fractured skull- both of which she thought that she initially had post-fight.

Sonya heard Kenshi move behind her and step into the shower.

She worked off her pants and kicked her uniform aside before she followed after him.

The feeling of hot water rushing down her back was almost therapeutic on its own.

She let him stay there for awhile to get used to the water on his skin, to get used to the constant contact, while also taking the moment to work herself up. Her stomach had been in a knot for days and it wasn't any better now. She had worked to get him set up down here, to get him as peacefully isolated as she could; she had worked to get supplies ready for when he inevitably calmed down, for when she could inevitably hose him down.

And yet, it still felt like there was a fist knotting her guts around it.

Sonya reached out and touched a hand against his arm as she slowly worked her way around to face him.

She brought her hand to his chest, before she touched at the faded tattoo under his right shoulder- or at least, what was left of it.

The dragon symbol he used to wear on a sash in his younger years had been etched into his skin at some point; a family heirloom he had once been proud of when he was young.

But as he grew older, as he began to learn more and more about Sento, about the actions of his family line, the dragon morphed into a symbol of disgust and shame to him.

Kenshi always talked about getting rid of it.

She supposed now, he didn't really have to worry about it.

Taking the coarse rag she had set aside before, Sonya got it wet underneath the shower head and worked it over with her hands. It was rough, almost like a loofah, and sort of reminded her of steel wool for some reason; it was a little more tense than she would've liked, but it would do the job of scraping the baked on carnage off of him.

She started with his arms and watched as dried blood seemed to come off in sheets, revealing the still open injuries underneath them.

A few pieces of skin came off as well, but she couldn't tell if they belonged to him or not.

There was bruising and blood pooling under his skin- injuries that the medical team had overlooked during their scan, although Sonya certainly couldn't blame them for not seeing them.

Moving to his chest, she tried to be more gentle with her movements, knowing that larger injuries were underneath the blood that peeled off his skin.

A fact that was proven when fingers touched at an open wound between two of his ribs.

And she noted that he didn't so much as flinch at the touch.

"You got anything to say? Anything I need to know about?" Sonya asked.

She wasn't expecting an answer, but she was looking to break the silence.

"My back hurts," Kenshi replied, surprisingly enough.

She didn't get a look of his back before, but she made note of his remark and figured she would get around to it when she did.

"I could imagine why," she spoke, as she moved to his neck now, figuring it would be easier to tackle everything from the shoulders up rather than from the chest down. She minded her movements and tried to be careful with the open cut that curved around the right of his neck; it didn't look deep, and considering that he was still alive, it probably wasn't.

Still, it was worth keeping an eye on.

"You may or may not have gotten hit by a car."

There was silence as Kenshi seemed to think her words over.

And Sonya waited for them to make an impact.

"Are you serious?"

"All I'm gonna say is that one of my guys tried to distract you," she remarked. "And from his own words, he thought you were going to move out of the way. You didn't. Not that it mattered, because the impact didn't really distract you, nor did it slow you down. I think you might've put up some kind of telekinetic shield at the last minute; there was blue flash in the dash cam a few seconds before it cut out."

Sonya moved to his face now and gently scrubbed at the blood stuck in his beard; she watched as more chunks of it fell out, taking a cluster of hair with it here or there. She ran her fingers under his jaw and felt how Kenshi tilted his head back as she did so, to give her some ease with stretching, only to show off yet another open gash that split along the curve under his chin.

It might've been from the same strike that had split the side of his neck open.

Or just a lucky hit that struck twice.

She took her time to examine his neck, looking for any other injuries that might get in the way for him- and thankfully, she didn't find any others.

Two concentrated hits before he learned his lesson, apparently; or before he decapitated his aggressor, either or.

Coaxing him under the shower head, Sonya grabbed it by the metal neck and moved it around, directing the water over his chest and shoulders, and washing off what crystallized blood was still stuck on him.

Some of his injuries had re-opened though and she could see fresh trickles of red running down his body.

"You're starting to look better," Sonya offered.

"I wouldn't know," Kenshi replied.

A little blind joke.

He was getting there.

She got his hair wet before she ran her fingers through it, carefully picking out pieces of what looked like rock and other materials that had gotten stuck in the chunks of matted blood. She tried to avoid the open gash that ran along the side of his head once she had found it, not that it was all that easy to given she still needed to clean it out.

Must've been from the car.

She wondered if the medical team could clean it as is, or if they would need to shave it out.

Sonya had to stand on her toes in order to reach the back of his head, the back of his neck, and ended up half-pressing herself against his chest. Something that didn't occur to her until she felt his arms around her waist and felt Kenshi pull her in.

For a moment, she let him just hold her.

Unsure of what he might do if she moved.

"You good?" Sonya asked.

"Fine."

Not a very convincing answer.

But it was an answer.

Relenting, she leaned into him just the same and wrapped her arms around him, careful with where her hands rested against his back. She had yet to look at it, but she could already feel the mess of skin underneath her palms; she could feel the way dried blood cracked underneath her fingers.

He smelled better at least, although the scene of carnage now lingered around them.

She would probably need to get the pipes pumped in order to get all the bio-hazard waste out.

"Are you alright?"

The question came from Kenshi this time.

And Sonya realized now just how difficult it was to answer.

"I've been better," she offered, speaking about as much truth as she wanted to in the situation. She slowly moved her hands to the back of his shoulders and curled her fingers against him; it was easier to relax into him if she knew that she wasn't digging her fingers into an open injury- not that he would tell her. "You really had me scared for a minute."

"Physically?"

"A little bit," Sonya replied. "Fighting doesn't scare me much anymore. All that paranormal stuff though, that was something new."

She felt the press of his fingertips as he dragged them up along her back, eventually moving to settle a hand at her shoulder.

"You don't like spirits?" Kenshi asked.

"I can't fight a spirit," she answered. "I can't shoot a ghost. As far as I know, I think all you can do is fight whatever they're using as a host- or whoever they're using as a host."

"You can fight me," he remarked.

She chuckled at the comment, even though it felt ill-timed.

"Yeah, I can fight you," Sonya agreed. "But I'm at a disadvantage when it's me versus who knows how many souls on the other side."

"But it's still only one host," Kenshi reminded.

That was true.

One steering wheel with about three hundred dozen pairs of hands would make for some chaotic controls.

Which certainly gave her an advantage- to an extent.

Sonya pulled herself back and moved her hands around to his chest.

"Come on, let's get you finished up," she offered as a change in topic. "You still up for it?"

"Do I have a choice?" he asked.

"No."

She moved him so that his back was facing the shower head now, allowing her to scrub off what was hopefully the last of the blood and grime. She tried to be careful where she could, but once more she was forced to use a little more shoulder power than she wanted.

Whatever had happened to him had chewed through the leather overlap that covered his back, resulting in a mess of open cuts and portions of his skin that been peeled off in conjoined patches. And the missing skin forced her to clean out whatever had gotten stuck in the shredded mess of flesh and muscle.

It really didn't help that she found herself having to scrub blood out of the knots of his scar tissue alongside everything else.

And again, Kenshi didn't so much as react to any of it.

Maybe a slight step forward to catch his balance due to her pushing against his back.

It only continued to push her concern.

Nothing was life-threatening, not yet at least.

But some of his injuries would require deeper cleaning, deeper care- and a shit ton of recovery time.

Kenshi was going to be in a lot of pain when his body started registering it again.

It wasn't until Sonya found herself counting the bruises between the missing skin did she wonder if any of his ribs had been broken.

And once the thought crossed her mind, she wondered just how many broken bones he might've had overall.

It was still a little too dangerous to try and get him through an X-ray machine, but she might be able to borrow one of the handheld ones. They weren't as reliable and couldn't scan as deep, but it would at least give her an idea of what he might be dealing with. It would also let her plan accordingly and try to get some medical care set up ahead of time.

"Do you think you have a concussion?" Sonya asked.

A question spurred out of the moment.

"I don't think," Kenshi answered.

Alright, a little bit of good news then.

And a big obstacle out of the way.

"I'm positive that I do."

Scratch that.

"Always with the straight answers," Sonya whispered, as she moved her hands to his ribs and tried to feel for any dislodging. She could feel swelling, but it was near impossible to pinpoint just what was causing it. It could be a broken rib, or a developing hematoma, or just general swelling over all.

The fact that he wasn't dead yet gave her some comfort in knowing that it wasn't serious.

For now.

Sonya moved her hands around to his chest and did the same down the front of his torso.

She pressed her palms along his ribs and tried to be as gentle as she could with his injuries.

Kenshi might not be able to feel them now but he would feel them later, and the last thing she wanted to do was aggravate them even more.

As she ran her hands down over his skin, she couldn't tell if it was water or blood she could feel under her palms.

Fingers brushed down along the curve of his abdomen, eventually reaching down to his hips before Sonya felt Kenshi pull himself away from her.

It was the first physical response she had gotten from him so far, which was enough to make her pull away in return.

And potentially count the seconds it might take for him to turn on her.

"You alright?" Sonya pressed.

"Yeah, you just- you don't need to go that low," Kenshi replied. "I can handle it from here."

Sonya found herself confused by the words, by the offset of his actions.

"I was just checking you over-" she started, in an attempt to explain herself, only to cut herself off as she realized what he had meant. Her hands had been rather low on his abdomen, for good reason, but she could see how the touch had been misconstrued. "That's not where I was going," she started again, "- but it's also nothing I haven't touched before."

"Maybe, but if you do it now, there's no telling what _I_ might do," he reminded.

He had a point with that.

His mental state was even more fragile than his physical one right now, and any little trigger might be enough to provoke something they would both regret.

Although the thought of him throwing her into a wall simply because she touched his dick was a little humorous, even to her.

However, this certainly wasn't the place she would want anyone to find her body.

"You're right," Sonya agreed, as she moved her hands to rest against his back once more. She gently rubbed at what skin was still left on it, and felt him gradually loosen up underneath her. "Stay in here for as long as you want. I got a change of clothes and a new room waiting for you when you're through."

"Are you leaving?" Kenshi asked.

"I'll be staying close," she assured. "There's a towel for you just outside, should be easy to find."

She handed the cleaning rag to him before she stepped out of the shower, leaving him to the rest of his business.

Grabbing her own towel, Sonya dried herself off and tried to wring the water out of her braid; she had tried to avoid getting it wet directly, but that was always a challenge in of itself. She resorted to pinning it up for the time being, just to keep it out of her way.

She redressed in her uniform and tossed the rest of his clothing in the hamper before she stepped back into the locker room.

Grabbing one of the locker doors, Sonya popped it open and pulled out the clothing she had picked up for him.

There was nothing heavy or tight-fitting, which were usually the styles Kenshi gravitated towards- especially for combat-related clothing. She had picked out a loose cotton shirt, short-sleeve even though she knew he would hate it, and some sweats; the kind of stuff he usually wore when he stayed at her place.

She had needed clothing that would be easy to get on and off without much struggle, and would be loose enough that it wouldn't irritate his injuries- or any potential bandaging that she might do.

Kenshi may even forgo the clothing just to let his skin breathe for a little while, which Sonya wouldn't blame him for either.

She hung around in the locker room until she heard the water cut off.

And then waited as he seemed to linger about in the other room, probably giving himself a chance to decompress.

Giving himself a chance to get used to his skin again- or at least, what was left of it.

It had to be weird to go from wearing heavy armor for weeks at a time, enough so that part of it had gotten stuck to his body from the dried blood, to no longer having that sense of weight on him. The smell of carnage had been nauseating, but by now he had probably gotten used to it; it was probably odd for him to realize that it was gone now.

He still had the smell of death on him, but she would get that scrubbed off eventually as well.

Sonya watched as Kenshi eventually walked in to join her.

The towel she had left him was tied around his waist now.

It was spotted with blood, which came as no surprise.

He was still bleeding, not as much as before thankfully, but bright-red lines were still rolling down his chest.

It seemed like every time she looked at him, she was seeing something new, something worse.

In the back of her mind, there was still that fear of an infection somewhere, buried underneath one of his injuries. It would be just deep enough to hide from her, and hide for a long enough time to evade medical intervention when it was needed. And that by the time anyone found it, it would be too late.

He may have beaten the life-or-death roulette before.

But there was never a guaranteed second time.

"Feeling any better?" Sonya asked, to break the silence once more, and to get herself out of her own head.

"I'm feeling something," Kenshi answered.

Which gave her no answer.

And which she should've figured as much.

"Do you know what happened?"

And she should've figured that question would eventually come up.

"Vaguely," she replied. "Do you?"

"... Vaguely."

They were both on the same page for information then.

"Do you want to have this conversation here or would you prefer I get you set up first?" Sonya asked.

"Environment doesn't really dictate the conversation," Kenshi remarked.

He had a point.

But it was easy for a blind man to say that.

And she would've preferred to have him settled in a room and comfortable before they launched into what little either of them knew about what had happened.

But this was his decision.

Sonya pushed herself from the lockers she had been leaning on and walked over to him.

She took him by the hand, trying to be careful with his exposed knuckles, and pulled him over to one of the benches, before she set him down and took the space next to him. And she had to admit that his body looked weird in motion; it looked like it shouldn't even be moving, and yet he spared no hesitation to do so.

She kept his hand in her own, taking the opportunity for as long as he would let her.

"You went off the radar about four weeks ago," Sonya started. "I wasn't worried. You do that from time to time and it's really not a surprise anymore. And I can't risk getting worried every time you disappear; I'd go insane from it."

She felt the subtle squeeze Kenshi gave her hand in response.

"But then we started seeing activity in Outworld- a lot of it. We did a quick satellite scan of the area, which didn't show us much, but it did indicate that there was a clan base there. One we might've overlooked before," she continued. "When I realized that it was a Red Dragon base, I knew you had to be involved somehow. We did another scan, from a larger satellite, and we immediately started seeing all these readings that were coming in. No one on-staff could figure out what they meant, or what they were even tracking, or where they came from. And then I realized that it was the same thing that happened last time."

She could still feel that knot in her stomach when the realization had hit her.

And how it got tighter when she made the decision to keep quiet about it.

"I kept it under the radar and only took in one team with me- which was pretty stupid looking back on, but it worked so I can't complain."

"That was pretty stupid," Kenshi echoed.

"Believe me, I know," Sonya replied. "You're not the first person to tell me that- and really, it's almost ironic coming from you."

She swore she heard a chuckle from him this time.

"This wasn't like the time before, when you almost got annihilated by that rocket," she spoke, picking up where she had left off. "I don't know what the Red Dragon did to you, but you sure as Hell returned the favor. We did a run through the building and there were just bodies all over the place- pinned to walls, hanging from the ceilings, shit I've only seen in the Nether Fortress before. I don't know if there were any survivors beforehand, but it didn't look like you spared anyone."

She could still see the silhouettes of the bodies in the back of her mind.

Torsos strung from the ceiling.

Bodies or body parts pinned to the walls by whatever objects could be used.

Severed heads tossed together into a pile.

"You were... relatively easy to take out. My guess is you had been there for longer than I initially thought. That's not to say you didn't put up a fucking fight, but you were exhausted by the end of it. Collection and travel were still Hell though- exhausted or not."

Sonya felt Kenshi pull his hand from her grasp and watched as he scratched at his jaw.

She watched how the tendons around his knuckles flexed with the motion.

"You've been down here for almost nine days now," Sonya spoke. "This is the first chance we've had to talk."

"How much damage did I do?" Kenshi asked.

Part of her was a little surprised he didn't ask more about the story she had given him.

But she imagined the questions would come later, when he was more straight-headed- and perhaps when his own memories came back to focus.

"I haven't tallied up the total yet," Sonya answered. "But I do have a sheet where I'm keeping track of it."

"Let me know if I beat my old record."

She snorted through a quiet laugh.

"Oh believe me, by a long shot," she remarked- and heard the quiet chuckle that left him in response. "You think you have this under control now?"

"Yeah," Kenshi nodded. "I just- it's going to take me a minute to get through this."

He sounded confident with his answer.

But that was still relatively up in the air at this point.

The blue glow had yet to return to his eyes, implying that his connection to Sento was still severed.

And until that connection could be made, while still maintaining the blue, his stability was debatable- despite the engaging conversation they were having. Despite how he seemed well aware of his previous actions and well aware of most things that had happened between collection to now.

She would let herself think of him as being on the rise though, while keeping her guard completely up.

"It's taking longer than last time," Sonya reminded, as tactfully as she could.

"Last time was by a rocket that didn't even hit me," Kenshi spoke, reminding her of the differences in return. "This time was a butterfly knife I had to pull out after it had been snapped off between my ribs."

So that's where that injury had come from.

At least now she had one answer to one of many questions.

"And that was before Sento broke."

Sonya let out a soft hiss of air at the thought, at the realization that it had occurred while he was still very well feeling pain.

And now she found herself wondering just how many of his injuries did he feel as they were occurring?

"I just want you to start feeling better," she remarked.

"Me too."

**Author's Note:**

> Would love to share this note my sister made when I was running this idea by her: 
> 
> "You're writing Sonya locking him in the basement after he had too much spirit juice."
> 
> Anyways, I don't run ideas by her anymore.


End file.
